(CNN) The kidnapping and killing of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar may have been prevented if authorities had properly handled DNA evidence from a separate case last year, a North Carolina prosecutor said. Robeson County District Attorney Luther Johnson Britt told reporters on Wednesday that authorities had evidence linking suspect Michael Ray McLellan to a rape case for at least a year but they took no action. "This is like taking a punch to the gut and not being prepared to get it." The county's sheriff and district attorney offices were notified in October 2017 that DNA recovered from a 2016 rape kit possibly matched McLellan. But nobody followed up on it and authorities only discovered the issue last week, Britt said.

Source: CNN December 13, 2018 08:03 UTC